Dollar General faces lawsuit over unpaid lunch breaks

Two Dollar General employees from Eastern Tennessee have filed a
collective action lawsuit in Nashville alleging that the discount
retailer forced them to work during unpaid lunch periods, which is a
violation of federal labor laws.

The practice, according to the
suit, is prevalent at other Dollar General stores around the country,
including locations in Illinois, Missouri and South Carolina.

Rachel
Buttry and Jennifer Peters each were supervisors at a Dollar General
store in Bulls Gap, outside of Kingsport. Although their employee
handbook states that employees can be fired for working when off the
clock, the lawsuit claims that the women were forced to open registers,
run returns, void items, among other duties.

Other employees, by contrast, are allowed to leave the store premises during the 30-minute unpaid lunch period.

According
to the suit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle
District of Tennessee, those actions run afoul of the Fair Labor
Standards Act.

Buttry and Peters, according to the suit, were
"forced to perform work for defendant, on defendant's premises, in plain
sight, during their unpaid meal breaks."

Despite Dollar General
executives, managers and other company agents having knowledge of the
practice, nothing was done to stop it, the suit says.

The Bulls
Gap women complained about working off the clock, but, according to the
suit, their bosses told them it was company policy.